Journal of Popular Film and Television

ISSN: 0195-6051 (Print) 1930-6458 (Online) Journal homepage: www.tandfonline.com/journals/vjpf20

Tales of the Silent Blast: Star Wars and Sound

Gianluca Sergi

To cite this article: Gianluca Sergi (1998) Tales of the Silent Blast: Star Wars and Sound, Journal
of Popular Film and Television, 26:1, 12-22, DOI: 10.1080/01956059809602769
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01956059809602769

Published online: 01 Apr 2010.

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14
With its villains and heroes, helpers and victims, the narrative of Star Wars closely fol-
lows well-known parameters, and the sound design needed to follow it closely.
This discriminatory approach to-
ward sound in films has conditioned
our basic attitude toward thinking and
talking about movies in two main
ways. On the one hand, we are neither
equipped for nor used to articulating
our thinking on film sound beyond
harmful generalizations. In exemplary
fashion, writing on Star Wars in the
early days of its release, Pauline Kael
reduces the complexity of one of the
most innovative soundtracks in film
history to one expression: “the loud-
ness’’ (708). On the other hand, we
have also come to regard the topic of
film sound as of a lesser value or even
as damaging to the “true” nature of cin-
ema: the image. As Tom Levin correct-
ly points out,
The history of the development of cine-
ma sound can be treated as an oscillation
between its difference [from the image]
understood as supplement and its differ-
ence understood as a threat. (63)
JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television
This cultural inadequacy, both in lin-
guistic and critical terms, is amplified
by the tremendous development that
the art of film sound has accomplished
in the last 20 years. The availability of
new technologies (most important, the
Dolby Stereo sound system) and
experimentation with multitrack mix-
ers (as in Robert Altman’s 1975 film
Nashville) have provided filmmakers
with a unique possibility to employ
multilayered and multichannel sound.
This freedom to depart from prior
constrictions, particularly the limiting
choice between (optical) monophonic
sound and expensive (magnetic)
stereo, has given birth to a very sophis-
ticated sound architecture.* From a
limited number of tracks layered with
an approach that had to deal with the
real limitations imposed by mono
reproduction in film theaters, sound-
tracks moved quickly into a new arena
in which complex structures were
achievable. As sound designer Walter
Murch, among others, noticed, Coppo-
la’s The Godfather (1972) was pro-
duced and exhibited in the early 1970s
following virtually the same criteria
employed in 1939 for Gone with the
Wind. Yet, new technologies allowed
him to employ a radically different
approach only a few years later in the
film Apocalypse Now (1979).
In the case of surround sound, to
quote but one important example, pre-
Dolby soundtracks were rather “shy”
in its use, thus limiting its dynamic
potential. It is only in the last 20 years
that the surround sound channel has
been employed with a clear realization
of its potential, both as an independent
sound channel and as a means to orig-
inate creative tension with the front
channels. In a way, it is as though film-
makers were finally allowed to explore
not only what lay immediately to the
sides of the screen but the whole off-
screen space, extending the aural
space of the audience well beyond the
confines of a two-dimensional view-
ing e~perience.~
George Lucas’s 1977 space epic
Star Wars (Twentieth-Century Fox)
was the film that, more than any other,
signaled this change-its soundtrack
went further into exploring the poten-
tial of the newly available technology.
It represented the most successful
example of the collaboration between
a new generation of sound technicians
and sound-conscious directors whose
formation was deeply rooted in the
1960s rock (and aural) rev~lution.~
The result of that collaboration is a
soundtrack that meant a breakthrough
in both sound production and exhibi-
tion and that provided audiences with
a new array of aural pleasures. From
sound architecture to spatial aware-
ness, from sound texture to detail,
from mixing to editing, from voice
characterization to physical sound, the
film suggests a concept of sound that
is willing to abandon its traditional
shyness and move forward to chal-
lenge the primary role of the image.
Yet, this brave new approach to
sound has received insufficient critical
attention, Kael’s reductive approach
being but one example. My article aims

to put the balance right, especially in
lieu of the film’s twentieth-anniversary
theatrical re-release. First, however, for
this analysis it is necessary to recognize
the soundtrack as an indivisible body
made of four distinct elements. Those
elements-effects, music, silence, and
dialogue-are significant only if seen
as working in a system of collaboration,
that is, as a soundtrack, with no element
claiming primacy over the others.
Although gifted with individual quali-
ties, it is their fusion into a carefully
balanced soundtrack that frees them
from their original frame (be it music,
literature, or other) and confers on them
filmic significance. In a way, this
should also emphasize the importance
of approaching a film’s soundtrack not
only from its literal or musical meaning
but also from its everyday quality
(some notes, some words, some noise,
some silence). It is with that thought in
mind that we can now take a closer look
at Star Wars and its ingenious use of
sound.
A Point in Time: Historical and
Institutional Considerations
Although the success of Star Wars is
not directly imputable to one single
element, a combination of economic
and institutional factors can help us
understand why it was such a break-
through in film sound. First, the tech-
nological developments described
above took place at a time when film-
making practices were undergoing sig-
nificant changes in Hollywood. Lucas
himself was in the mold of a new
emerging figure of filmmaker, one that,
though floating adrift of Hollywood in
a geographical and political sense, still
kept the same shores f m l y in sight. As
Steve Neale observed, this somewhat
paradoxical figure was in fact “dedicat-
ed to the aesthetics and values of the
studio-based, classical Hollywood
movie, dedicated to narrative, action,
spectacle, identification-and genre”
(37). Thus, the so-called movie brat
generation was not so much attempting
to replace existing Hollywood produc-
tion patterns but, rather, was exploring
their boundaries, often in the light of
recent technological developments.
Sound was one of those boundaries.
Star Wars and Sound
In the case at hand, Lucas and his
producer Gary Kurtz demonstrated
this new attitude by approaching film
sound not at a postproduction stage, as
was customary (and to a certain extent
still is today), but as an integral part of
Lucas and Kurtz
approached sound not
at the customary
postproduction stage
but as an integral
part of the creative
process from the
very beginning.
the creative process from the very
beginning. In particular, three main
changes can be identified. First, and
perhaps most important, Lucas and
Kurtz approached Dolby Laboratories
as early as 1975 to discuss the film’s
philosophy toward sound. This move
signaled Lucas’s intention to consider
sound in terms of not only production
but also exhibition, always the weak
link in the sound chain. The specific
film genre, science fiction, was quick-
ly seen by Dolby as a great opportuni-
ty, especially considering that previous
efforts in sound innovation had mainly
concentrated on musicals, such as
Nashville (1975) and A Star is Born
(1976). As Ioan Allen comments,
“From Dolby’s point of view the sub-
ject matter would allow them to show
their wares in a way more demonstra-
tive than was common” (748). This
relationship allowed Lucas to employ
confidently both 35 mm and 70 mm
prints after Dolby’s reassurance that
its new technology would be available
15
in both formats (70 mm prints were to
employ a new type of encoding
designed to emphasize sub-bass
response). Moreover, Dolby engineers
visited the sets of Star Wars before
shooting began in an attempt to opti-
mize results in the production stage.
Second, Lucas hired Ben Burtt, a
man who was to become the key figure
in the creation of the new sound uni-
verse that Dolby hoped for and relied
on for its success: Ben Burtt. As Burtt
himself remembers, “[Lucas and Kurtz]
just gave me a Nagra recorder and I
worked out of my apartment near
U.S.C. for a year, just going out and
collecting sound that might be useful”
(45). Lucas hired Burtt virtually at the
same time that he was negotiating with
Dolby, a clear indication of the correla-
tion of interests between Lucas and
Dolby. His move to hire Burtt was a
direct response to the need to showcase
not just a new sound system but also a
new type of soundtrack whose impact
would not have been experienced
before. Burtt delivered exactly that by
creating a whole new range of record-
ed sounds rather than simply employ-
ing existing sound libraries. As a result,
he was awarded an unprecedented
Academy Award for Special Achieve-
ments in Sound.
However attentive Lucas and his
collaborators were in terms of produc-
tion, the key factor in their innovations
was their belief that here was a unique
opportunity to change radically sound
exhibition, as evidenced in their deci-
sions during production and distribu-
tion. In the former case, all stages of
sound recording (including Foley,
effects, dailies, and ADR) were
Dolby-encoded, and sound recordists
were asked not to boost high frequen-
cies (a practice usually employed to
improve dialogue intelligibility but at
the expense of dynamic range) to
improve distortion levels during play-
back in Dolby-equipped theaters that
employed wider dynamic ranges than
standard theaters. As for distribution,
Star Wars was to be released in Dolby
Stereo format in over 50 percent of
theaters during its first release wave.
That is to say, Lucas intended audi-
ences to hear the difference as it had
16
been planned and carefully orchestrat-
ed during production so that “[flor the
first time ever, the sound heard in the
theater should to all intents be identi-
cal to that heard by the director during
the mix” (Allen 761).
Such innovative practices and think-
ing were light-years from the classic
Hollywood approach to sound, though
the film still adhered to Hollywood’s
overall system of signs. As Neale has
pointed out, speaking of Steven Spiel-
berg’s 1981 film Raiders of the Lost
Ark (for which Ben Burtt won another
Academy Award): “It uses an idea [the
signs] of classical Hollywood in order
to promote, integrate and display mod-
em effects, techniques and production
values in order to attract a modem
audience” (38).
Thus, Lucas’s break with studio
practices, though only partial, is sig-
nificant, particularly because it had a
positive effect in creating fertile
ground for other filmmakers to depart
from institutionalized practices when
creating soundtracks, especially by
employing new technologie~.~
Hollywood as an industry was also
being reshaped. New technologies
apart from sound, such as cable televi-
sion, satellites, pay TV, and videos
were redesigning the relationship
between Hollywood and other major
entertainment industries, forming new
alliances and opening up new avenues
for revenue. In sound terms, Star Wars
contributed to the change mainly by
boosting the diffusion of the Dolby
Sound System. Indeed, Dolby’s sales,
already significant in the music indus-
try, in which its system of noise reduc-
tion was rapidly becoming a standard,
were to skyrocket from this point on,
until Dolby Sound became a standard
in the film industry. A further measure
of the formidable power of the alliance
between the film industry and Dolby
Sound can be found in its institutional-
ization by the Academy of Motion Pic-
ture A r t s and Sciences: Since Star
Wars, all Academy Award winners in
the two sound categories have been
Dolby-encoded soundtracks.
A further significant change in the
period was represented by the in-
crease in film production costs. These
JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television
were significantly on the rise (the
average cost increased from $2 mil-
lion to $10 million during the 1970s),
thus delineating a clear need to maxi-
mize profit and attract new audiences.
Most crucial, in this sense, was the
realization by Lucas and his collabo-
rators that the possibility of breaking
with the low-fidelity monophonic
soundtracks that had become the
industry’s standard during the late
1960s and early 1970s could have an
impact not only on production tech-
niques but also on audiences. The
affordable Dolby stereophonic sys-
tem, available to the vast majority of
theaters through a relatively simple
and economical installation, resusci-
tated the meaning of the word stereo
for cinema audiences by dissociating
it from very expensive, road-show 70
mm prints, mostly affordable only for
film theaters in large city centers.
More than anyone before, Lucas
understood that he could confidently
target the hi-fi generation emerging
from the late sixties and early seven-
ties and bank on and consolidate Hol-
lywood’s young, under-30 audience
(Steve Neale’s “modern audience”),
which had replaced the formerly dom-
inant fanii ty audience.
In the universe of
sound in Star Wars,
there is not only a
laud and soft, but an
above and below, a
behind and in front,
and all this in the
film’s opening four
A Sound Architecture of Change
The awesome yellow planet of Tatooine
emerges from a total eclipse, her two
moons glowing against the darkness. A
tiny silver spacecraft, a Rebel Blockade
Runner firing lasers from the back of
the ship, races through space. It is pur-
sued by a giant Imperial Stardestroyer.
Hundreds of deadly laser bolts streak
from the Imperial Stardestroyer, causing
the main solar fin of the Rebel craft to
disintegrate.6
The few lines above describe the
opening sequence of Star Wars. The
information given is overwhelmingly
visual. Indeed, no word is directly
related to sound: There is no “deafen-
ing sound,” no “roaring engines,” or
“squeaky metal noises.” This should
not surprise us too much: In a book on
screenwriting, Robert Berman identi-
fies screenplay terminology as follows:
Fade in, fade out, angle on, another angle
on, wide angle, close on, insert of, back
to scene, point-of-view, reverse shot, dis-
solve to, cut to, tight angle on, pull back
to, reveal, off camera, off screen, voice-
over, slow pan to, in the foreground, in
the background, reaction. (22)
Thus, an early consideration, as obvi-
ous as it is revealing, is that sound
people and sound-literate directors
often have an uphill struggle, having
little or no direct indication as to what
the film should “sound like.” The
process of visualization, intended here
as the translation of a screenplay’s
visual instructions and dialogue into
images, is undoubtedly aided, if not
guided, in the screenplay’s passage.
But the equivalent process for sound,
which I will call “audilization,” is not.’
As the opening titles of Star Wars
disappear into the background at the
top of the screen, the musical score
does not simply fade out to allow the
effects in; it is, rather literally, blasted
away by an explosion (the only sound
clearly indicated in the screenplay):
Desperately fleeing the Imperial des-
troyer, the rebel ship squeaks, alarm
sirens fill the air, and violins are
drowned in a flood of laser bolts. From
here on, the music is as though
dwarfed by the power and exceptional
quality of the effects, to become not a
major star, but merely one of the ele-
ments of a soundtrack. In terms of

sound architecture, the spatial revolu-
tion is also defined immediately: one
hears starships flying overhead; ships
move from right to left; and blasts are
heard around the auditorium. Star
Wars explores a universe of sound
The vast majority of sounds that were required in Star Wars were not immediately
available as either a concept or an actual recordable event.
where there is not only a loud and soft,
but also an up and below, a right and
left, a behind and in front, and all this
in little more than four minutes. This
awareness of issues such as three-
dimensionality and directionality goes
beyond a mere understanding of tech-
nical qualities: It demonstrates a confi-
dence in the creative use of sound not
witnessed before.
It is in such a confident approach to
sound that the major change is to be
found. Unlike his predecessors, Lucas
sensed that this was no “freak” exper-
iment. This was not a film whose
Star Wars and Sound
soundtrack employed technology
unavailable to other filmmakers; nor
was the technology going to be avail-
able only to a handful of first-run, big-
time theaters. It was quite clear that
Dolby’s compatibility with existing
reproduction apparatuses would give it
a decisive head start in the competitive
arena it had just entered.
In creative terms, Lucas’s confidence
is constantly emphasized through a
series of choices that can be summa-
rized in a few brief considerations. The
first point, as we have already seen, is
that both music and dialogue are chal-
lenged by visual effects from the very
first moments of the film, demonstrat-
ing the filmmakers’ willingness to
explore the full potential of a sound-
track by rejecting the well-established
hierarchy that gives preference to dia-
17
logue and music over effects and
silence. The possibility of employing a
wider frequency range than ever before
for optical tracks, thanks to Dolby’s
noise reduction system, certainly aided
this decision.
Following this first departure from
convention, a starship is distinctly
heard flying overhead (itself a novel-
ty), while another one, of a different
sound signature, follows immediately
afterward. This constituted too clear a
departure from conventions not to be
noticed by critics. Although in a symp-
tomatically inadequate fashion, Jane
Morgan’s review of Star Wars states,
“Heraldic music accompanies the roar
of a spaceship zooming onto the screen
pursued by another dwarfing the first,
frightening and thrilling” (437).
Indeed, Lucas’s use of the surround
channel, as demonstrated in the exam-
ple above, is most certainly the first
noticeable step toward today’s aesthet-
ics of surround, wherein the channel is
less a means to provide music and some
rare ambiance effects than a source of
primary sound information.8Its former
limited use, possibly a legacy of the use
of the “extra” channel employed in
musicals (examples range from West
Side Story to My Fair Lady, from Okla-
homa! to Hair) and epics (such as Julius
Caesar, Spartacus, and most of David
Lean’s films), is turned upside down in
Star Wars, a clear signal of Lucas’s con-
fidence. When one considers that musi-
cals and epics were the main arenas in
which stereophonic sound was em-
ployed, it is easier to understand why
those two sound genres had affected the
use of surround sound until Star Wars.
A further innovation in Star Wars is
to be found in the use of “physical
sound.” The deep and rumbling sound
that the huge Imperial craft produces,
achieved through an active use of sub-
frequencies, is a sign of the crucial
understanding that audiences can be
“reached” by sound and made to par-
ticipate not only visually or orally but
also physically, in a literal sense.
Although this was hardly news to Hol-
lywood, again Lucas shows a degree
of awareness never shown before,
exemplified in the opening sequence
by the earth-rattling Imperial ship. The
18
When Princess Leia and Darth Vader initially meet, their exchange is aurally very
similar to an encounter between a naughty child and her upset father.
film also redefines the issue of “sound
texture” through an amazing array of
various sound blasts and laser bolts:
The sounds are significantly different
from one another (see below). Speak-
ing on Burtt’s achievements in Raiders
of the Lost Ark, Marc Mancini correct-
ly identifies the impact that Burtt’s
work was to have in the years to come
by emphasizing that “[hlis insistence
on completely original or refurbished
classic sounds counters the numbness
we all have to recordings heard a thou-
sand times, hence, his new sound cre-
ations can become ‘fresh events”’
(Burtt 45). Burtt’s work has left a per-
manent legacy, clearly visible in many
later films, from the submarine pings
JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television
in The Hunt for Red October to the
amazing array of different sounds of
rain in Forrest Gump.
Moreover, directionality also pre-
sented room for interesting innova-
tions. The choice of having the rebel
craft sound as if it were flying from
screen right to front left to rear left
emphasizes the filmmakers’ awareness
that it was now possible to employ
multichannel technology ‘‘on the draw-
ing board,” knowing that it would not
be confined to a handful of theaters.
They used sound to expand the film
into off-screen space, not only to the
sides of the screen, but also toward the
auditorium and the audience. The spec-
tator is immersed in a sound universe
that was unknown and unavailable
before, and his or her way of listening
to a movie is changed forever. Indeed,
in the years that followed Star Wars
this trend has been consolidated: from
sound tied to the screen image to sound
free to “fly” across the auditorium. As
Michel Chion humorously emphasizes,
this multifaceted approach to sound
has also had important consequences
on the relationship between sound and
the image. Today, “sound operates on
two, three, four layers of equal pres-
ence, and the image is nothing but
another layer, not anymore the princi-
pal one. In this vast sonic aquarium,
the image comes floating, a poor small
fish” (Chion 28; my translation).
Hearing the Falling Tree:
Audilization in Star Wars
Notwithstanding the technological
awareness and crafting prowess de-
scribed above, the main achievement of
Star Wars lies in the successful transla-
tion of outstanding technological inno-
vation into a powerful storytelling tool.
One can tackle this aspect by looking
more closely at the film’s narrative and
the way it was “audilized.”
Briefly, with its villains and heroes,
helpers and victims, the narrative of
Star Wars closely follows well-known
parameters. As a trilogy, Star Wars
narrates the attempt of a small group
of freedom fighters to rebel against an
evil Empire. The Empire has taken
over the previous Republic by exter-
minating its custodians and moral pil-
lars, an order of knights called the
Jedi. As the story unfolds, the rebels
eventually manage to destroy the
Empire’s most powerful weapon (the
Death Star), kill the evil Emperor, and
turn back to goodness the Empire’s
chief enforcer, Darth Vader. By the end
of the trilogy, the small rebellion has
grown strong enough to challenge the
remains of the Empire and restore the
Republican order with the help of a
new order of Jedi knights, led by Luke
Skywalker. In short, good wins some,
loses some, and eventually triumphs.
An element that needs to be estab-
lished clearly, if the story is to work, is
the mismatch of forces and means

between the powerful Empire and the
small, weaker rebellion. This element,
which effectively appeals to our capac-
ity to support the underdog and paves
the way for our taking sides with the
rebels, needs to be established at the
beginning of the story. And it is here
that the work of the film’s sound
designer starts.
As we have seen, the screenplay
details to a certain extent the visual
action taking place at the film’s begin-
ning: “a tiny silver spacecraft” is pur-
sued by “a giant Imperial Stardestroy-
er.” The size of the two crafts engaged
is unmistakably defined, and the
mismatch established. However, the
screenplay does not indicate what
sound should be used in the same
scene, let alone its quality. To put it sim-
ply, the screenplay calls for what may
be defined as a “silent blast,” a sound
that is expected but whose quantity and
quality are unknown and unspecified.
When we see the two starships
(emphasized by the famous overhead
shot of the Stardestroyer), we are
asked to use elementary geometrical
reasoning (i.e., big menacing triangle
meets small chunky polygon; big tri-
angle swallows up small polygon).
However the sounds that the ships
make can neither follow a similarly
effective reasoning (a louder sound
may not necessarily convey a feeling
of superiority over a softer sound) nor
be immediately associated with any
“real” sound (ever hear a starship
before?). As soundman Claude Beau-
grand correctly points out, “The sound
universe of a film finds its source in
the transformed reality of the sound
editor’s auditory memory and his rec-
ollections” (32; my translation).
The problem here is that Star Wars
ventures into the future, that is, a place
that cannot possibly yield any auditory
memories. Thus, it is not a tree that we
have heard fall before. Although this
was in some way an advantage for both
Lucas and Dolby, insofar as it allowed
the former to be creative and innova-
tive and Dolby to show off the new
sound system, it created more than just
a headache for sound people, for the
vast majority of sounds required in the
film were not immediately available
Star Wars and Sound
either as a concept or as actual record-
able event. Hence the problem: How to
make audible the mismatch between
the ships? Perhaps the key is to be
found not in a visual approach to sound
but in an aural one. In other words, the
relationship that lies at the core of the
process of audilization in Star Wars is
one that does not necessarily follow the
usual top-down, image-sound hierar-
chy but rather one that, while following
The technology
associated with each
of the characters
in Star Wars bears
significance to the
themselves and their
role in the film.
closely the overall narrative drive,
starts with sound.
Star Wars shares well-known themes
with Hollywood tradition and with the
western film in particular. Whether
chasing or being chased, firing or being
fired at, future human and machine
need to share as close and effective a
relationship as that of man, horse, and
gun in westerns. Thus, the technology
associated with each of the characters
bears significance to the characters
themselves and their role in the film.
The sound design in Star Wars seems to
follow this narrative device closely. As
this is an unknown (unheard) world, the
soundtrack must provide the audience
with a structuring element, a recogniz-
able pattern that can function as a
“lead” in a world of unknown sounds.
This lead, which needs to be a splinter
from our everyday life (and therefore
immediately recognizable), is not so
19
much represented by any given sound
but by the sonic relationship between
father and child.gThis strategy appeals
to our experience in recognizing an ele-
mentary difference: The “father sound”
holds a deep quality emphasized by its
ability to reach low frequencies; the
“child sound” has a higher frequency
and thus is less full bodied and more
fragile. This kind of aural reasoning is
embodied in the expression that a boy’s
voice “has broken,” which clearly indi-
cates our tendency to associate sounds
of a higher pitch and frequency with
something fragile and in a precarious
state.
In Star Wars this “guiding princi-
ple” is applied to both the characters
and the technology at their disposal, in
particular, to their flying machines. In
the alorementioned opening sequence,
two main characters, on opposite sides
of the fight, are introduced: Darth
Vader (David Prowse, with the voice
of James Earl Jones) and Princess Leia
(Carrie Fisher). Princess Leia’s ship
does not reach low frequencies to pro-
duce a deep-quality sound; rather, it is
the source of a high-pitched, shrilling
sound. In this it mirrors all the pecu-
liarities pertaining to the child sound.
Meanwhile, Vader’s ship reaches very
deep frequencies, emphasized by its
earth-rumbling properties.
Coherently, the sound design fol-
lows this principle to its logical con-
clusion as the characters’ own voices
reflect the balance: When Leia and
Vader finally meet on board the cap-
tured rebel craft, Leia’s attempt to
impose her voice (thus, her version of
events) is immediately interrupted and
overpowered by Vader’s deep baritone
voice. Indeed, this first exchange is
aurally very similar to an encounter
between a naughty child and her upset
father-perhaps not surprisingly con-
sidering that, as it is revealed later in
the trilogy, Vader is Leia’s father.l o
This mismatch (also mirroring that
between the strength of the Empire and
the relative helplessness of the rebel-
lion) is not an accident but a carefully
planned device. Vader’s voice, so piv-
otal to the success of the film, was
achieved by Burtt through manipulat-
ing Hollywood’s most famous voice,
20
that of James Earl Jones.” The end
product is a fascinating mixture of two
opposite aspects: an extremely captivat-
ing, operatic quality (especially the
melodic meter with which he delivers
his lines) and an evil and cold means of
destruction (achieved mainly through
echoing and distancing the voice). One
may even argue that that is probably
how a child would experience such a
verbal exchange with a towering,
black-robed, angry father!
The same audilizing approach to
characters and their role in the film is
present throughout. Luke Skywalker’s
(Mark Hamill) vehicle, a landspeeder,
reflects its owner’s youth by being
capable of producing only high-
pitched frequencies. This is matched
by the characteristics of Luke’s voice:
impatient (staccato quality), inexperi-
enced (intermptinghnterrupted-i.e.,
not yet knowing its place in the sound
balance as in life), youthful (high
pitch). In the case of Han Solo (Harri-
son Ford), the only main figure in the
film to be neither a father figure nor a
child, Burtt had to accommodate
Solo’s greater age and life experience.
Hence his ship produces a much more
“grown-up” sound than either Leia’s or
Luke’s by reaching deeper bass fre-
quencies. Once again, this is mirrored
in Solo’s voice: Although at times
impatient (his meter often changes,
proving incapable of the same stability
in tone and meter of the more mature
voices of Ben Kenobi, played by Alec
Guinness, and Vader), it nonetheless
provides a rather “experienced” sound
at a considerably lower pitch.
This aural dictotomy is often played
against opposite characteristics to a
creative effect. The first encounter
between the Millennium Falcon and an
Imperial fighter is, perhaps, the best
example. As the smaller Imperial craft
desperately tries to avoid the Falcon, it
emits a sound whose envelope and tex-
ture closely resemble that of a fearful
child’s cry for shelter and comfort. In
fact, the fighter is rushing toward its
mother ship, the Death Star. In con-
trast to this, later in the film, the rebel
X-wing and Y-wing fighters attacking
the Death Star, though small, emit a
wider range of frequencies, ranging
JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television
from the high to the low (piloted as
they are by men of different ages and
experience), suggesting their ability to
succeed (as they eventually will do),
even though clearly mismatched.
All Is New; Nothing Is
Transformed: The Soundtrack of
Star Wars, Special Edition
When it was first released, Star
Wars acquired more than just cult sta-
tus as a hugely popular science fiction
film: It became the symbol of the ulti-
mate technologically advanced movie.
As Ron Magid emphasizes, “For many
movie mavens, Star Wars represents
the ultimate in science-fiction cinema.
At the time of its summer 1977
release, the film showcased some of
the most wondrous special effects
ever” (60). In the years that have fol-
lowed, the name of George Lucas and
the notion of state-of-the-art technolo-
gy have become inseparable.
This, however, happened 20 years
and many changes ago. Since then,
new technologies have been intro-
duced or perfected (most noticeably,
digital sound); more sound-conscious
filmmakers have shown great ability in
manipulating sound (James Cameron,
the Coen brothers, and David Fincher,
to name but a few); and industry pro-
duction practices have crucially shift-
ed from monophonic sound (which
has now virtually disappeared) to mul-
tichannel digital sound (most major
film companies have adopted an all-
digital policy for their feature films).
Inevitably, all these changes have also
had an impact on what kind of sound
quality audiences expect and demand.
The role that Star Wars played in kick
starting such changes should be clear
by now; however, its place in film his-
tory today is far less clear. Has its
soundtrack been surpassed, out-dated,
and out-powered by contemporary
productions? How important is it for
Lucas’s empire to keep up the symbol-
ic value of Star Wars as the technolog-
ically definitive movie?
These questions would perhaps have
seemed purely speculative had it not
been for Lucas’s decision to reissue a
special edition of the trilogy on its
twentieth anniversary. That decision,
though mainly motivated by new abili-
ties to manipulate images offered by
computer-generated imaging (CGI),
presented the problem of what to do
with the film’s soundtrack. Given the
crucial changes outlined above, the
soundtrack is caught in a difficult,
though inescapable, polarization.
On the one hand, the film clearly
needs to live up to its reputation of
being at the forefront of film technolo-
gy, at least in terms of wares. However,
as it stood, its 20-year-old Dolby stereo
soundtrack would have been merciless-
ly exposed as outdated, at least in terms
of clarity (digital sound gives six dis-
crete channels of sound against the two
discrete and two derived channels of the
original Dolby stereo), use of surround
sound (especially after the introduction
of stereo digital surround), and impact
on contemporary audiences (by now
well adjusted to the superior range and
power of digital sound). Hence the need
was to revamp the soundtrack to pre-
vent it from becoming “old,” to make it
once again the ultimate soundtrack.
On the other hand, the search for
eternal youth ran the risk of encounter-
ing an opposite problem. Star Wars has
come to be revered by fans worldwide
as immortal, the ultimate movie. To
change it radically easily could have
been interpreted as less a technological
update than an act of blasphemy. It is
this paradoxical duality-the need to
change while still remaining the
same-that would seem to have
informed the restoration of the film’s
soundtrack for its re-release. The need
for continuity has been voiced by Burtt
himself (the choice of having him at
the helm of the new version is indica-
tive). In a recent television special in
the United Kingdom on the reissue of
the film, he pointed out that “[wle did-
n’t want to throw out the sound in the
[original] film and do it all over. There
were so many classic things in it. . . . It
also represents what the film is and
how it is known to people.”I2Thus, in a
sense, what has been left unchanged is
just as relevant as what has actually
been removed or altered.
Indeed, this awareness of the film’s
function as an object of quasi-religious
adoration and of the consequent risks
 Star Wars and Sound 21

inherent in its manipulation was

proved even further by Lucas’s recent
decision to release a THX-mastered
videotape version of the trilogy. What
is interesting about that release (there
had been several previous releases with
no change to the actual content of the
films) is that some of the aural changes
present in the 1997 Star Wars special
edition can already be heard in that
version. In the opening scene, for
example, the sound is more precise.
The explosions around the rebel ship
are more clearly heard than in the 1977
original; the sound of the laser blast
hitting a pipe behind C-3PO’s head
while he is arguing about whether to
board the escape pod is also different
from the 1977 version; and there are
many more such examples. However,
what is important is the evident desire
to update the soundtrack to contempo-
rary standards while altering it as little
as p0ssib1e.I~Thus, the 1996 tape ver-
sion served two main functions: It test-
ed the market’s hunger for yet another
release of Star Wars, and it helped ver-
ify the extent to which audiences were
prepared to accept changes to their
well-known and beloved version of the
film. Of course, as Lucas himself has
often pointed out, the re-release is part
Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder reflects its owner’s youth by producing high-pitched
of an overall campaign whose aim is frequencies, which match the characteristics of his voice.
the release of the new trilogy in the
next few years. Thus, after considering
all of these factors, it should not come First, the overall soundtrack has ing a gap between audiences seeing
as a surprise that the film’s soundtrack been remixed to give greater depth and the film for the first time and those
has undergone not a transformation but width to the sound field. This is a nat- who have seen it before. In short, noth-
an adjustment, with most of the origi- ural progression from the early days of ing is completely new in the special
nal tracks left unchanged. Dolby to the present. The availability edition soundtrack, but nothing is
Ben Burtt and Gary Summers, the of more discrete channels gives film- absolutely untouched.
main people responsible for the new makers greater scope in placing their A further advantage in updating the
edition soundtrack, have left virtually sound elements/tracks more freely, soundtrack to digital is in terms of
untouched the key elements around according to the effect being sought exhibition. In 1977, Star Wars was
which the film’s sound logic revolves: (be it clarity of musical instruments, available in two different versions: a 35
The main voices (such as Darth Vader, greater pace through panning, better mm, 2+2 channels optical copy and a
R2-D2, C-3PO) and effects (the light directionality, or increased power). 70 mm, 6-track magnetic copy. The lat-
sabers, the imperial TIE-fighters, the Second, the sounds that have been ter, as we have seen, was largely avail-
Millennium Falcon, and so on) and changed have not been replaced with able only to a few first-run theaters
John Williams’s score are the most brand new ones but rather with sounds located in big cities. As a consequence
meaningful examples of this process that, by and large, had already been only a comparatively small number of
of conservation. Thus, the changes employed by Lucasfilm in other people had access to the subtleties of
that have been adopted are significant films.14In other words, the new sounds sound that had gone into the making of
only when placed within the wider are ones that a contemporary audience the film’s soundtrack. Today, the avail-
consideration of the filmmakers’ over- would probably already be familiar ability of a single 35 mm, 6-channel
all strategy. The latter seems to hinge with (especially given the genre). This digital copy allows most spectators
on two main aspects. is extremely important to avoid open- around the world to access the same
22
sound quality that was once restricted
to the few lucky ones who had access
to the 70 mm copy.’5
Nevertheless, does the new version
of the film’s soundtrack add anything
to the original 1977 film? The restora-
tion approach adopted for the film’s
soundtrack is one that confirms, if any-
thing, the status of Star Wars as one of
the landmarks in the history of film
sound. The easy option (given the peo-
ple, money, and technology available)
would have been to change more, and
more radically. The choice not to mod-
ify too much, apart from the practical
considerations discussed above, is fur-
ther proof of the validity of the film’s
original sound architecture. Though 20
years old, the soundtrack is still as
innovative, ear-catching, and aurally
pleasing as any available today. To put
it simply, it is like one of those old toys
we keep in the attic: It may look a bit
old, but it is still great fun to play with.
ConcIusion
The brave new world of sound has
its foundations in the extension of
audience space in which filmmakers
are to create new daring sound con-
structions for the audience to be
actively and pleasurably engaged. The
field of science fiction constituted the
ideal terrain to test those foundations
because it provided filmmakers with
only the constraint of verisimilitude,
not an exact reference: The sounds did
not have to match known parameters,
for they were not present in our world,
and those existing from previous sci-
ence fiction films were being reshaped
by Burtt and his collaborators.
Most crucially, this interpretation of
sonic spectacle should still ring a wam-
ing bell, 20 years later, regarding our
understanding of the role of sound in
the creation of filmic pleasure. Variety
wrote in 1977 that “[the] use of Dolby
Sound enhances the overall impact.”
But sound as it is deployed in Star
Wars does not act as a mere amplifier;
rather, it is part of the original “signal,”
part of the “impact.” Indeed, pleasure
does not originate somewhere outside
sound, in a reiteration of the discourse
of exclusion highlighted above; on the
contrary, a film’s sound is an integral
JPF&T-Journal of Popular Film and Television
part of the production and reception of
pleasure. This reasoning was brought
to the fore in dramatic fashion by Star
Wars, and the film’s greatest achieve-
ment lies exactly in having helped to
elevate and establish film sound from
an instrument to diffuse pleasure origi-
nating somewhere else in the film
apparatus, to an instrument to produce
pleasure, requiring an altogether differ-
ent approach from critics and audi-
ences alike.
NOTES
1. In this sense, it is depressing that the
most important institution for the study
and promotion of cinema in the United
Kingdom, the British Film Institute,
should endorse this attitude so wholeheart-
edly as to embed it in its motto: “Celebrat-
ing the moving image.”
2. In the 1970s, 70 mm magnetic stereo
prints cost on average seven times more to
produce than an optical monophonic 35
mm version.
3. It is perhaps worth remembering that
the creative use of off-screen space was
explored from the very inception of film
sound in excellent films such as Hitch-
cock’s Blackmail (1939).
4. Lucas himself has often pointed out
that the young average age of those
involved in the production of Star Wars
was mid twenties.
5. This “pioneering” role has been fur-
ther qualified during the years by Lucas’s
decision to base his operations outside
Hollywood (near San Francisco), the cre-
ation of Skywalker Ranch, and the incep-
tion of the THX and TAP programs.
6. George Lucas, Star Wars: Episode
IK A New Hope, revised fourth draft, Jan.
1976, Lucasfilm Ltd.
7. As defined in the 1993 edition of The
New Shorter Oxford Dictionary, “audile”
is a person “responding to perceptions
more readily in terms of audile imagery
than in tactile or visual terms.”
8. For two excellent examples of mod-
ern use of surround, see the opening
sequence of The Fugitive, directed by
Andrew Davis (Warner Brothers, 1993)
and Speed, directed by Ian De Bont (Twen-
tieth-Century Fox, 1994).
9. Of course, this may well open a
series of justified questions on its rather
sexist approach, considering that there is
no “mother sound‘’ and that Princess Leia
(Carrie Fisher) is the only significant
female voice in the film.
10. It has often been noted that Vader in
Danish means father and that Darth is sus-
piciously close to dark.
11. Interestingly, Jones was also chosen
to be the official voice of another “empire,”
Ted Turner’s CNN.
12. Interview during Star Wars: The
Magic and the Mystery (Lucasfilm Ltd.,
1997), shown in the United Kingdom on
the Sci-Fi Channel.
13. In this sense, it is important to
remember that remixing the soundtrack to
accommodate digital multichannel tech-
nology is a far less “intrusive” strategy
than replacing old sounds with new ones.
14. In fact, most of the “new” sounds are
not new at all, but rather borrowed from
other Lucasfilm productions, such as the
Star Trek series. In this sense, there is a
certain coherence with the visual changes,
as some of them are also based on existing
material (the visual effects employed in the
explosions of the planet Alderaan and the
Death Star, to mention but two examples,
are clearly similar to those used in
sequences of recent Star Trek films).
15. This mirrors Lucas’s overall preoc-
cupation with standards of theatrical pre-
sentation as exemplified by his THX sound
system and TAP (theater alignment
program) evaluation. Spectators can now
even report any problems they might have
encountered while viewing the special
edition to Lucasfilm’s THX website
(www.thx.com).
WORKS CITED
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Recording Star Wars.” American Cine-
matographer 58.6 (July 1977): 748.
Beaugrand, Claude. “Entendre I’arbre qui
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32-33.
Berman, Robert. Fade In: The Screenwrit-
ing Process. Studio City, CA: M. Wiese
Productions, 1988.
Burtt, Ben. Interview. “Sound Thinking.”
With Marc Mancini. Film Comment 19
(1983): 40-47.
Chion, Michel. “RCvolution douce . . . et
dure stagnation.” Cahiers du cinema.
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Kael, Pauline, ed. 5001 Nights at the
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Magid, Ron. “An Expanded Universe.”
American Cinematographer (Feb.
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GIANLUCA SERGI is a lecturer of media
and cultural studies at the University of
Staffordshire in England.